Illuminated sign



Jan. 20, 1942. P. J. HOWE ETAL ILLUMINATED SIGN Filed April 26, 1938 mINVErTTORS P. J. HOWE Patented Jan. 20, 1942 ILLUMINATED SIGN Paul J.Howe, Ridgewood, N. J., and Clement H. Wyss, Jr., New York, N. Y.,assignors to The Western Union Telegraph Company, New York, N. Y., acorporation of New York Application April 26, 1938, Serial No. 204,280

3 Claims.

mentary colors and in which some degree of blending of the two colors isattained in the immediate vicinity of the sign characters.

The nature of the instant invention may be ascertained from thefollowing description taken in conjunction with the drawing in which:

Fig. l is a side elevation of the sign partially cut away to illustratesome of the internal features thereof;

Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the sign taken on the line 2-2 of Fig.1;

Fig. 3 is a partial sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1 andshowing a portion of the interior of the sign in plan view;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1' andillustrates the method of mounting the character forming elements on thesign panel; and

Fig. 5 is a side elevation of a second embodiment of the sign comprisingthe instant invention.

Having reference first to Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive, there is shown a signhaving a housing ID, the sides of which are substantially open. Bountedin these openings are two translucent panels II and I2 which arepreferably of colored glass, or of clear glass or other suitablematerial which has been given a coating of some nature to color it asdesired. The panels are held in place by means of a plurality of clampsl3 which are secured to the housing II] by means of bolts or any othersuitable means. Mounted on the outward faces of the panels are channelmembers H which are arranged in the form of sign characters. Thechannels are attached to the panels by means of bolts l5 which areprevented from injuring the panels by means of rubber or other softwashers l6. Luminous tubes H are disposed within the recesses of thechannel members l4 and are secured to saddle supports l8 which arethreaded into lugs l5 clamped in position by the bolts l5. It will benoted that where this method of mounting sign characters on the panel isemployed, the tubing comprising each character must have both endsdisposed behind the panel. The electrodes of the various characterscomprising the entire sign may be connected electrically in series or inmultiple, or in any combination thereof as desired.

Extending along the lower edges of the panels is a reflecting member 20which has a configuration such that its faces are disposed obliquely tothe panels H and I2. At each end of the housing l0 isa unilaterallyconcave reflecting member 2| and 22 which are arranged in verticalpositions extending along the two ends of the panels. These concavemembers are supported in the housing H) by means of wooden blocks 23.The top of the sign structure is formed by a cover plate 24, the insideof which is conditioned so as to be light reflective.

Located at either end of the panels H and I2 are lamps 25 whichconstitute sources of light by which the panels may be illuminated. Thelamp 25 is mounted in a socket 26 which is supported at the end of ahollow tube or pipe 21.

Affixed to the socket 26 is a bracket 28 by means of which lightdistributing members 29 are supported in such positions that they aresubstantially interposed between the lamp 25 and the panels I l and I2.These distributing members 29 are similar to those described in acopending application of Paul J. Howe and Clement H. Wyss, Jr., SerialNo. 146,672, filed June 5, 1937, Patent No. 2,141,139, December 20,1938.

The light reflecting surfaces are so characterized and disposed thatlight impinging upon them, either directly from the lamp 25 or asreflected light from one of the other reflecting surfaces, is redirectedso that it eventually falls upon some portion of the panels II and I2.The function of the light distributing members 29 is to restrict theamount of direct light which otherwise would fall upon the adjacentportions of the panels in such a manner that, when used in conjunctionwith the aforesaid reflecting surfaces, it results in a substantiallyuniform illumination of the panels II and I2.

With the combination of elements described above, a number of effectsmay be obtained with the sign. For example, the panel may be illuminatedin a' light color while the characters delineated by means of luminoustubes are illuminated in a darker contrasting color. .Because of thefact that the tubes are recessed within the channel members l4, therewill be no intermingling of the two colors with the result that thecharacters will stand out sharply defined against the illuminatedbackground. Also, if desired, periodic switching facilities may beemployed for controlling the two sources of light in order to attainother effective displays. For instance, the characters may bepermanently lighted while the illumination of the background isintermittently switched on and off, or the reverse of this may beaccomplished by maintaining a constantly illuminated background andhaving the characters intermittently illuminated. It will be seen that,with the latter arrangement, in the one case the sign will present anentirely illuminated effect and in the other case the sign characterswill stand out in silhouette against an illuminated background.

Another modification of the instant invention is shown in Fig. 5. Thefacilities for uniformly illuminating the panels comprising thebackground of the sign are substantially similar to those describedhereinbefore. However, in this embodiment the luminous tubes 30comprising the, sign characters are mounted directly upon the panelswithout utilizing channels. It will ,be apparent that, while deficientin some respects to the sign previously described, the presentembodiment affords other effects not possible or obtainable with theabove described modification. Where both the background and thecharacters are illuminated, there will be no sharp line of definitionbetween the characters and the background. However, by suitably choosingthe colors employed for lighting these two portions of the sign, verypleasing results may be obtained. For example, if the colors utilizedare so-called complementary colors such as where blue characters aredisplayed on a yellow background, the portion of the sign immediatelysurrounding the sign characters will be illuminated in a third color. Inthe example just cited, this third color, or course will be green.Obviously, such an arrangement lends itself to a wide variety ofcombinations, all of which may be obtained without departing from thetrue spirit of 4 the present invention. It is desired that allequivalent structures and obvious modifications of the above describedinvention be embraced therein and the invention be limited only by theprior art and by the specific limitations embodied in the appendedclaims.

What is claimed is: 1. An illuminated sign comprising two translucentpanels arranged in spaced relation, a plurality of luminous tubespositioned on the outwardly facing surfaces of said panels and arrangedto delineate sign characters, and means for uniformly illuminating saidpanels, said means comprising a plurality of reflecting surfacesdisposed intermediate said panels and including a pair of inwardlyfacing unilaterally concave members disposed adjacent to a pair ofopposite edges of said panels, a ridged member and a plane memberdisposed adjacent to another pair of opposite edges of said panels, aplurality of sources of light located intermediate said panels adjacentsaid concave, members, and serrated light distributing membersinterposed between said light sources and said panels.

2. An illuminated sign comprising two translucent colored panelsarranged in spaced relation, a plurality of channel members aflixed tothe outwardly facing surfaces of said panels and delineating signcharacters, a plurality of luminous tubes arranged within the confinesof said channel members, and means for uniformly illuminating saidpanels, said means comprising a plurality of reflecting surfacesdisposed intermediate said panels adjacent the edges thereof, saidreflecting surfaces including a plane member arranged perpendicularly tosaid panels, a twofaced member arranged obliquely to said panels and apair of unilaterally concave members, a plurality of sources of lightdisposed adjacent said concave members and serrated light distributingmembers interposed between said sources of light and said panels.

3. An illuminated sign comprising a plurality of translucent panelsarranged concentrically, a plurality of luminous tubes afiixed to theoutward surfaces of said panels and arranged to delineate signcharacters, and means for uniformly illuminatingsaidpanels, said meanscomprising a plurality of reflecting surfaces including unilaterallyconcave members disposed adjacent intersecting edges of said panels, amultifaced oblique member disposed adjacent corresponding spaced edgesof said panels, and a plane member disposed adjacent the opposite spacededges of said panels, a plurality of sources of light located adjacentsaid concave reflecting members and serrated light distributing membersinterposed between said sources of light and said panels.

PAUL J. HOWE. CLEMENT H. WYSS, JR.

